AOW Expirence

[divedadepths]

I just got back from the caribean yesterday. I took my AOW course which went very smoothly, but there was a scary situation on the deep dive.

We were diving with myself, and on other guy who was getting his AOW and a family of four who were OW certified. The dive site had a sloping bottom, and so the plan was that the family was supposed to stop at 60 feet, and wait for us while myself, the other student, and the instructor descended to 110 feet for the timed exersize. Apparently one of the teenage girls in the family of four didnt see the "STOP" hand signal (which was very clear), and kept following us. The rest of the family kept swimming after her, trying to get her attention. Before we knew it they were at 110' with us. Then the girl looked at her depth gauge and totally freaked. She realized she was 30' too deep and bolted for the surface. The family followed, at an ascent rate that was far too fast, all the way up. The rescue diver aboard the boat rescued them and they werent allowed to dive the rest of the day. They seemed pretty pissed off, but they're lucky they werent in the chamber...

 

[all4scuba05]

Good'ole "certified" divers. Can't say that AOW divers would be much better. Experience above all else.
I guess because they were family it would be too dificult for the family members to have let her shoot up by herself. Perhaps I too would've shot up trying to stop my son. Well that's why my son isn't going to be diving anytime soon.
Kudos to the outfit who made them all sit out the rest of the day.

 

[jbd]

I just got back from the caribean yesterday. I took my AOW course which went very smoothly, but there was a scary situation on the deep dive.

We were diving with myself, and on other guy who was getting his AOW and a family of four who were OW certified. The dive site had a sloping bottom, and so the plan was that the family was supposed to stop at 60 feet, and wait for us while myself, the other student, and the instructor descended to 110 feet for the timed exersize. Apparently one of the teenage girls in the family of four didnt see the "STOP" hand signal (which was very clear), and kept following us. The rest of the family kept swimming after her, trying to get her attention. Before we knew it they were at 110' with us. Then the girl looked at her depth gauge and totally freaked. She realized she was 30' too deep and bolted for the surface. The family followed, at an ascent rate that was far too fast, all the way up. The rescue diver aboard the boat rescued them and they werent allowed to dive the rest of the day. They seemed pretty pissed off, but they're lucky they werent in the chamber...

Somebody apparently wasn't taught to think when diving. The single most important life support equipment on any dive is the gray matter located behind the eyes and between the ears.

I'm not saying the young girl should have followed the AOW group to depth but since she arrived there safely----so what??? Its no big deal until a big deal is made out of the situation by reacting inappropriately---which she did, and was promptly followed by the rest of the family.:shakehead Pure lack of thinking and and understanding diving.

 

[Thalassamania]

I'm not saying the young girl should have followed the AOW group to depth but since she arrived there safely----so what??? Its no big deal until a big deal is made out of the situation by reacting inappropriately---which she did, and was promptly followed by the rest of the family.:shakehead Pure lack of thinking and and understanding diving.

Exactly. I'm curious as to what in her background/training made it into a big deal so that she'd overreact.

 

[Tigerman]

Exactly. I'm curious as to what in her background/training made it into a big deal so that she'd overreact.

She coulda been narced and not thinking straight, or it could simply be the fact that everyone goes "you cant go deeper than youre certified for, cause then youll DIE!"

 

[Thalassamania]

Fear is the mindkiller, the little death.

 

[Arizona]

The rescue diver aboard the boat rescued them and they werent allowed to dive the rest of the day. They seemed pretty pissed off, but they're lucky they werent in the chamber...

Thanks for sharing. Anymore specifics on how the Rescue Diver rescued them? Was this done by slowing the ascent or at the surface? A tough situation.

Arizona

 

[all4scuba05]

or it could simply be the fact that everyone goes "you cant go deeper than youre certified for, cause then youll DIE!"

oh yeah, hear that on here quite a bit.
:huh: Hey, something's not right with this story. The whole family shot straight to the surface way too fast and even skipped the safety stop. I thought they were supposed to die?

 

[divedadepths]

Thanks for sharing. Anymore specifics on how the Rescue Diver rescued them? Was this done by slowing the ascent or at the surface? A tough situation.

Arizona

Im not sure exactly sure what happened on the surface because i was at 110' trying to spell my name backwards to prove that i was narked.

I heard the DM talkin to them on the boat during the SI and they said that they were certified awhile ago and havent dived recently.

 

[Tigerman]

Ok. Ive actually seen this happen myself.. Ive seen 3 or 4 divers come feet first from 100 feet dives.. None of them really showed clear signs of being bent, but one of them was breathing 100% 02 for a while as a precautionary measure. He did not dive the rest of the day either, btw.